Call for real patriots
When Taiwanese realize that China can not give them what they do not already have, there will be a public backlash. China spends all its time on the so-called “Taiwan issue” fashioning a tiny carrot and a giant stick. Which of these does it intend to use? China offers a fig leaf as clothing while holding a straight jacket behind its back. What is China after?
What China wants is diabolical: a sinister capitulation of Taiwanese. This desire stems from Beijing’s black-hearted jealousy for what Taiwan has, and what China can not provide its own people as long as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) exists.
China has taken in manufacturers and taught them the black art of corruption in the making of food products. China tells the world, “Hey, we are looking out for our people in the Taiwan region.”
In reality, they are doing everything in their power to flatten the Taiwanese landscape: Hollowing out the manufacturing area, giving incentives to move technology produced with the support of Taiwanese taxes to China for free, hollowing out the banking industry with soft, sweet words like: “Bring the money to China and your money will go further,” or just “go away.”
Those words will eventually stick like a thorn in the paw of every business that goes to China, because every promise it makes comes with a qualifier. The qualifier is, “You will do well, Mr Businessman, as long as you do not speak up for Taiwan in China, in Taiwan or anywhere, and we are watching you.”
If you are a businessman in China and you do not heed this warning, thugs will show up at your door to make it plain that the CCP means what it says or implies.
As long as the nation remains as it is now, it is a threat to the CCP. Slowly but surely, that threat must, in the eyes of the Chinese, be crushed. Democracy, the rule of law, NGOs, a free press, an independent judiciary and elections are anathema to dictators and dictatorial powers. So what is on the agenda for China?
The CCP intends to entice and corrupt any who will listen to their sweet voice of supposed reason, while it labels, waylays and destroys those who object. They are creating two societies in Taiwan, which are at loggerheads with each other. The strategy is called “Divide and conquer.”
The day may come when many people will put on a wedding dress, flee to China with all they can carry and leap into the CCP’s arms. The remaining population, unable to resist, will end up being enslaved and objectified like the Muslims of Xinjiang, the Tibetans and any one of the other 50 beleaguered minority groups in China.
Resist, speak out, foment revolution, keep the faith, stand up to the bully, become a nation of brave free spirits.
“Love Taiwan. Taiwan Forever.” People who can not say these things are not patriots.
Bode Bliss
Cleveland, Ohio
Typhoon preparedness
Three lessons should be taken on board by the human and environmental catastrophe in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Haiyan.
First, anthropogenic climate change does not cause typhoons, but it increases their likelihood and strength (“Is climate change to blame for Typhoon Haiyan?” Nov. 19, page 12).
Second, a massive typhoon will hit Taiwan — maybe next month, maybe in 10 years, but for sure at some point in time.
That is the nature of probability. Just as surely as there will be new record temperatures, as I mentioned in a previous letter (Letter, Aug. 12, page 8), a record typhoon will hit Taiwan.
Third, the nation should be better prepared to mitigate such a disaster.
To be better prepared, emergency services will have to be upscaled so they can react to a catastrophic storm which will supersede Typhoon Morakot. Almost certainly, a record number of landslides, floods, broken trees and damaged infrastructure will be the result. To prevent landslides, the suicidal expansion of agricultural and silvicultural monocultures into the mountains has to be stopped and reversed.
To alleviate floods, the smothering of the landscape with concrete should be halted (Letter, May 8, page 8). Rivers embanked with concrete walls should be given free range to flood nearby areas again, wetlands should be expanded to soak up water, cities must be dotted with trees, parks, and green roofs and walls for the same reason. Natural and artificial reservoirs need to be expanded, and any budget on flood control must be spent wisely (“Environmentalists lobby against new flood budget,” Nov 26, page 3).
Power lines need to be strengthened or put underground, streets near mountain slopes need to be protected against landslides and low-lying areas may even have to be protected by new or higher dikes. The nation must learn quickly from the country with the most advanced flood control systems in the world.
Finally, the nation should prepare for the inevitable change to a zero-carbon economy (http://tinyurl.com/lhdkrp9) to secure its technological competitiveness, economic progress, energy independence, national security, and human and environmental health.
To not act is irresponsible and, as the brave climate delegate Naderev Sano from the Philippines made clear to the world’s governments at the recent global climate meeting, immoral.
Flora Faun
Taipei
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